The devil within
by Rhaegal Nymeria Stark
Summary: She waits. She lingers. She smiles. She pretends. And as always, Azula plans. Sequel to "Trust, stupidity, what's the difference?"


Disclaimer: Own nothing, neither the Last Airbender or "The Devil within" by Digital Daggers

Summary: Living on Kyoshi Island, Azula bides her time, watching and waiting. It doesn't matter when, but sometime soon, she would strike. The Kyoshi, the Avatar, Zuko…they won't tame her.

Note: The lyrics of "The devil within" by Digital Daggers are italicized

**The devil within:**

She waits. She lingers. She smiles. She pretends.

It had become a prayer locked within her head. Commandments if she really had to be specific. She had to wait, she had to linger, she had to smile, she had to pretend.

She had made the decision the moment the Avatar, his friends and the sky bison had left Kyoshi Island and dropped her and that water tribe fool off three days ago.

It might have driven anyone else mad; smiling at the enemy and acting as if they were willingly going along with everything their wardens had told them to go along with. But thankfully, she was pretty sure that she was already quite mad. No need to worry about further loss of sanity. What was done was done. She thought that maybe, just maybe she should be feeling bile rise at having to maintain neutral and even positive expressions around the people that helped imprison her Lord and the only man worthy of ruling this world and throw him in an iron and stone cell. But years of training and keeping up a masquerade of perfection around her peers and family had had her well prepared. She kept the sense of illness and nausea she always had around her wardens at bay and the façade of peace and acceptance was maintained, as usual.

_I will keep quiet you won't even know I'm here _

_You won't suspect a thing, you won't see me in_

_the mirror_

They say that they'd rather not see themselves as her captors. Oh, the firebender was so sure that that was true. It was terrible to have to establish that someone saw you as "the bad guy," wasn't it? Azula wasn't sure why they were taking it so hard. She had to deal with being seen as "the villain" every day her whole life. Her mother had been the first to see her in such a way. Naturally, she had been right.

The Kyoshi warriors, all clad in dark green, the shade of the wilting leaves and crushed grass beneath her feet, never overstepped their bounds with her. They _claimed _to trust her. Azula didn't believe them of course, and why should she?

The firebender would be the first to admit that she was the world's greatest liar, but also the first to claim that she was evil incarnate. She relished in her darkness, unlike the rest of the world that was self-righteous and claimed that they were fighting for the right cause. She might have been the best liar, but she was honest about what she was.

Ty Lee, one of the few people in the world that Azula once might have considered trusting completely, was now cast in the firebender's calculating mind as a pariah, just like the rest who were responsible for putting her in a cell and then keeping her here in limbo; contained on the island, unable to move beyond its perimeters. The acrobat could say that she cared about Azula all she wanted, but she was just as guilty as Mai, Zuko and the rest were.

Speaking of which, Ty Lee, Azula's very exuberant circus freak, came bounding over from the forest when she looked out of the leaves and spotted the princess. She got closer and took the princess's hand, pulling.

"There you are!" The brunette cried happily, "We've been looking for you. Come on, Suki says it's time for dinner."

Azula tried not to narrow her eyes. She knew better though. She had to be very careful how her facial expressions appeared. Her countenance had to be monitored. Just as long as she remained neutral, no one would guess what her real intentions were.

_But I crept into your heart, you can't _

_make me disappear till I make you_

Still, it made her sick to do as this Suki commanded. Suki was the leader of the Kyshoi, but she was still just a peasant, and she was Earth Kingdom. It was true that the majority of the time, she could keep any sensations of revulsion she had towards the Kyoshi and Suki locked up, but it still made her want to vomit.

The two Fire Nation women encroached on the village, the house where dinner was eaten came into view.

Ty Lee was being her usual cheery self; swinging her arm and making Azula's own limb sway happily.

"What do you want to do tomorrow?" The hyper acrobat asked, grinning, "There's a lake nearby where there aren't any scary sea monsters trying to eat people. We could go swimming if you'd like. Remember when we were children and the two of us and Mai snuck out of the palace and played in that lake nearby? That was so much fun."

Azula nodded. She had to admit, that had been rather enjoyable. Of course, there was just a bitter taste in her mouth at the thought of it now. Whatever loving childhood memories Ty Lee might have harbored of the two of them playing together, in Azula's mind, it would always be tainted by the fact that Ty Lee, like Mai had betrayed her.

She never said it, but as the acrobat smiled widely and bounced along acting like everything was alright, the firebender watched and waited.

_I made myself at home in the cobwebs_

_and the lies, I'm learning all your tricks_

_I can hurt you from inside. _

Azula did what she did best; waited and pretended and gave a fake smile to her jailers, Ty Lee included. Ty Lee could smile all she wanted and say that she was on Azula's side, but at the end of the day Ty Lee still betrayed her, still became one of the Kyoshi Warriors and still watched her and made sure she couldn't escape from the island.

Ty Lee, like the rest of the Kyoshi, Zuko, Mai and the Avatar and his friends, was the enemy.

_I made myself_

_a promise you would never see me _

_cry till I make you _

As the two women stepped onto the wooden porch of the building, Ty Lee reached over with her free hand and slid open the door, revealing the rest of the Kyoshi, the water tribe boy and some villagers who were sitting down and the tables were littered with plates of food.

Suki was seated at the middle of one of the tables, facing Ty Lee and Azula as they came in. Sokka sat across from her. "Glad you two made it," The warrior said, smiling, "Sit down. Everything's all here." Sokka waved a grease covered hand at the two women, unable to do anything else given that his mouth was at the moment, stuffed with meat and fruits. One of the warriors moved over and indicated for Ty Lee and Azula to sit down next to her and Suki. Ty Lee pulled Azula's arm and the firebender grunted, following her "friend" to the table. They both sat down. Azula immediately grabbed a plate full of roast pig-chicken and a platter full of apples, snatching a green one and biting into it furiously.

"Hungry, I see." Suki observed, smiling as she nudged a plate of roasted otter-duck covered in barbeque sauce Azula and Ty Lee's way. "Yeah," Ty Lee said grinning, "We've been walking for a few hours and Azula wandered off but I found her by some boulders."

Suki looked at the two women. "Wandered off?" She asked, voice dangerously low.

At her tone, Azula noticed all the other Kyoshi tense up as if preparing to restrain her, should she try to run.

"Don't be ridiculous." The princess snapped, "I wasn't trying to escape. What was I going to do? Swim back to the Fire Nation?" She glared at Suki coldly and after a moment, the Kyoshi warrior nodded and resumed to cutting up her food. The other Kyoshi became lax and didn't watch the princess anymore.

Azula almost sagged in relief. Well, she wasn't trying to escape _yet, _but she was looking around the island's borders; trying to find the perfect place for her to train, get stronger and then find a way to steal one of the boats from the harbor and escape. Her thoughts were interrupted when Ty Lee chimed in, "Are Yeela and Muzia back yet?"

Suki shrugged, "They've been patrolling for a while. They should be back soon." She added gently, "Azula." The princess turned her head to the Kyoshi warrior.

"I think you might want to know," Suki started, "That I've been talking with the rest of the townspeople and we believe that we can see to it that you have a job here."

Azula absorbed that information, trying not to look repulsed. Her work? The Fire Nation's princess? She was worth over a thousand peasants, why should she work in this ridiculous village?

Before she could voice her abhorrence at Suki's suggestion, she felt her arm get tugged for the sixth time these past three days of being brought here.

"Oh, Suki!" Ty Lee marveled, "That would be wonderful! She get to work and hopefully make some friends here." Ty Lee smiled up at the princess, hugging herself to the firebender's body.

_You'll never know what hit you _

_Won't see me closing in._

_I'm gonna make you suffer_

_This hell you put me in_

_I'm underneath your skin_

_The devil within_

_You'll never know what hit you_

Now, Azula had to ward off the impulse to smirk. Ty Lee was always so optimistic. She had no idea whatsoever what her princess was capable, did she? But that was a good thing. As long as Ty Lee still had feelings for her, that was just an advantage for Azula. She suspected that it was Ty Lee's feelings that drove the acrobat to vouch for her and give her a place on this island in the first place.

That was just one of the many things Azula knew that she could make her childhood friend do for her. And she had to wonder, if she actually gave some sort of hint or implication that she felt the same way (which of course she didn't) what could she make Ty Lee do for her then?

Azula rolled her eyes, allowing Ty Lee to see, but smirked over at Suki.

_I will be here when you think you're all alone_

_Seeping through the cracks, I'm the poison_

_In your bones. _

"Peasant work?" She mocked.

The only indication of Suki's irritation that was visible was her lips quirking slightly and her eyes narrowing somewhat. "Peasant work, huh? Don't forget, you're in our home, princess. We're your hosts, for now. So try to cooperate with us."

_More like my jailers, but why would you ever admit to that?_ Azula thought to herself, trying very hard not to laugh in Suki's face at how much of a liar the peasant was.

Instead she gave a neutral wave of her hand towards the Southern Water Tribe boy, "Have this fool do it. I'm sure he's been used to peasant work his whole life." Sokka stopped chewing and he glared at the princess.

"'ey!" He snapped, words stifled due to the mass amount of food he was consuming.

Suki glared at the firebender. "I don't appreciate you speaking that way to my boyfriend. And I don't appreciate you making a mockery of our island. If you want to be off this island sooner, I advise you to actually contribute and work for a while. Or are you going to be useless and have a chip on your shoulder the whole time?"

Azula wanted to turn to the Kyoshi warrior and incinerate her, oh how much Azula wanted to burn the warrior to death, but now was not the time. The Kyoshi were watching her and would kill her, should she try anything. Not to mention Ty Lee would just block her chi and she certainly didn't want to experience that again. So she just smiled as she always did. "If you insist, Suki." She said calmly.

_I tried to be the lover to your nightmare_

_Look what you made of me_

_Now I'm a heavy burden that you can't bear_

_Look what you made of me_

_Look what you made of me_

_I'll make you see _

Just as long as they thought she was the obedient dog that they were hoping to make her into, then they'd never catch on to how she planned to eventually completely destroy this island. All it would take was a dirigible with bombs packed into its space. The only issue was going back to the Fire Nation and getting ahold of it. That would not be the easy part.

She would bide her time, as she did invariably. Then, after all the time in the world past on by, when everyone was so convinced that Azula was "better," that she was "cured," that she was _tame_ she would act, she would get all the weapons in the world and wipe out every last one of her enemies. Suki, Ty Lee, the Kyoshi, the Southern Water tribe, the Avatar and his little group and most of all, her brother and Mai.

_You'll never know what hit you_

_Won't see me closing in _

_I'm gonna make you suffer _

_This hell you put me in_

_I'm underneath your skin_

_The devil within _

_You'll never know what hit you_

Suki nodded, though she appeared suspicious. "Two people in the village showed some interest. One of them is Rokuro. He is one of our farmer's here, and he's always looking for help planting our food, plants and fishing."

Azula's teeth clenched before she could stop herself. Farm work? Farm work? Farm work?! The princess could barely contain her rage. Ty Lee playing with her hair was the only reminder that she had to stay focused and in control, that she couldn't allow it to show that these people got to her.

It took all the willpower in the world not to let anger into her voice as she spoke, "And the other?"

"The other," Suki said, cutting up more of her cooked fish, "Is a woman named Hoshi. She's where we get the metal for our fans, headdresses and armor from. She is our blacksmith, if you will. With your firebending abilities, I imagine that it would be very useful for her. You could heatbend until the metal becomes more malleable and put it into any shape you and her might want. What do you think, princess?"

The princess cocked her eyes a little. "Do I have a choice about the jobs?" She snipped, wanting a clear answer.

Suki looked at her sharply, "You have a choice about _which_ job you want. But I'm not going to tolerate you sitting around the island and doing nothing. You need to contribute to the village."

Again, the Fire Nation royal contained her seething. She. Should. Contribute?! So she should help the people that were holding her captive? Well, okay, _now_ it was taking all of the princess's willpower not to laugh. Agni, and people called _her _mad.

However, Azula just did as she always did. She smiled and nodded, the perfect mask of acceptance, hiding a monstrous face of calculation and hate….and she planned…..

They would never change her.

They would never break her.

_The devil within_

_You'll never know what hit you_

**This is just the introduction to Azula's time on Kyoshi Island and the South Pole. Don't worry, this is just one-shot, but there's going to be a whole series of chapters about Azula's time on both the island and the south pole, and of course, she's going to be planning the whole time. **


End file.
